


Sabbatical

by chelseagirl



Series: Alias Investigations [7]
Category: Alias Smith and Jones
Genre: Gen, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-06-11 09:06:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15312141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chelseagirl/pseuds/chelseagirl
Summary: An Eastern archaeology professor on a solo expedition out West finds himself in over his head, until a fortunate encounter sets him right.





	Sabbatical

Harrison Winthrop III, Ph.D., dusted off his tweed jacket, and looked despairingly at the horizon.

He really ought to have made it a practice to start riding more regularly, before his sabbatical began, since he’d planned to spend it out West looking for fossils. Now he was so uncomfortable that he was leading his horse around the Montana wilderness, and he thought it would be a few days more before he might attempt to ride again.

Well, Marianne had tried to warn him. She’d been so disappointed not to be able to join him, but the doctor was insistent that she mustn’t take the risk in her condition. So she’d stayed behind in Massachusetts, knitting up a storm to get ready for the new baby.

There’d been a few significant finds a few years back, in this general area, including a giant sabretooth cat and one of those ground sloths of similarly immense size. Though neither Othniel Marsh nor Edward Cope had spent much time this far north, there had been a lovely Allosaurus and quite an impressive array of Diplodocus bones discovered by one or the other right in this region. Winthrop figured he’d be low key enough not to attract the attention of either man, and anyway, the Bone Wars had been calming down for years now.

It had been a few days since he’d seen anyone else. He hadn’t hired a guide: he was fairly sure in his map reading skills, and anyway, the college hadn’t provided him with much in the way of funding for this expedition. His mare was rather pleasant company, if he didn’t actually have to ride her, but she wasn’t much on conversation.

So it was with some relief that he saw two men riding towards him.

As they drew closer, he saw that they were oddly assorted, one of them being an Indian, with a long braid flying behind him, and the other a blond in a brown cowboy hat.

They reigned in their horses, and the blond asked, “You havin’ any trouble?”

“No, I’m just a little . . . saddlesore. Taking it easy for a few days. But thank you for inquiring.”

The blond nodded. “See by your tools as you might be a prospector?”

Harrison smiled and shook his head. “I suppose I am prospecting, but not in the sense you mean. I’m looking for prehistoric relics – bones and fossils.”

The Indian nodded. “Like that unpleasant man, Marsh.” He turned to the blond. “Jed, you remember I told you about him?” Harrison noticed that his English was perfect.

The other man looked disgusted. “Oh, right. Insisted on diggin’ up in your ceremonial grounds, without so much as a by-your-leave.”

Now Harrison felt a little nervous. He tried to hide it, but was fairly sure he failed entirely. “Well, I . . .”

“So what’s your name?” asked the blond.

Harrison identified himself by name, and by institution, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts.

“And I’m Jed Curry, and this is my father-in-law, Albert Raintree, of the Blackfoot confederacy.”

Now Harrison saw that the Indian had a fair amount of silver in his braid. Raintree looked back at him, and the professor could only imagine what he saw – the field clothes that were brand new two weeks ago, except for his beloved tweed jacket (which had all the right pockets), the sunburnt face and the uncomfortable gait as he walked his horse. The man must have him pegged as the Eastern idiot he truly was.

“Well, I . . .” he stammered. “I was wondering if your people might know of any sites where such things are found, and might be willing to work with me?” He could see the blond nodding encouragingly, as if to say, that’s right. Actually, it had never occurred to Harrison that he’d be working with the natives, but in the moment, it seemed the right thing to say. The right thing to do, actually.

“Let me talk to my people,” said Raintree. He turned his horse’s head, and in another moment he was gone.

“Thing is,” said Jed Curry, meditatively, “for a long time, my partner and me, we didn’t know much about Indians, neither. We ended up in a kind of an awkward situation with some Chiricahuas, because of it. So we kinda changed our attitude, after that. Heyes figured—“

But Harrison cut him off. “Wait. Heyes and Curry? Like in the dime novels? You’re Kid Curry?”

Curry looked just the slightest bit exasperated. “Well, I go by my real first name now, ‘cause Kid sounds a little too much like who I was, not who I aim to be, if you see what I mean. Quit outlawin’ awhile back. Not sure if the dime novels got around to talkin’ about that, though.”

“And your wife’s a Blackfoot?”

“Half. Raised by her mother’s family, though. Still learnin’ about them, herself, and teachin’ me and the kids.”

Kid Curry and his Curry kids, thought Harrison, slightly giddily. Those dime novels had gotten him through some rough times during the pursuit of his doctorate. He’d often imagined himself as the brave, tough Kid with his lightning reflexes or as clever Heyes, who’d have probably outfoxed his (Harrison’s, that is) entire dissertation committee. Come to think of it, he thought he’d read something about a pardon or an amnesty or something. He just couldn’t quite understand why they’d want to give up a life of adventure for something more mundane.

“We live in a town ‘bout a few hours ride away. So we come up, spend some time with ‘em when we can. Our two oldest, the boys, are gonna spend a month up here with their grandpa on their own, first time.”

Harrison looked down at his tweed jacket, and removed some imaginary dust from his lapels, not quite able to meet Curry’s eyes. “And they don’t . . . you know . . . shoot bows and arrows? Try and scare off folks like me?”

“Well, if you say stupid stuff like that, they might. And if you just start diggin’, without talkin’ to ‘em first, they really might. Especially if you don’t bother to find out what land is sacred to them. But you ain’t got a big expedition along with you, not like that Othniel Marsh that Albert was talkin’ about. I guess you know all about him.”

“Uh-huh. Men like him make things harder for a junior faculty member like me. This is my first sabbatical – kind of like a working holiday. Didn’t get much funding for it, but I thought I’d come poke around on my own, anyway.”

Curry nodded. “Albert’ll see you right. As long as you treat him and his with respect, they’ll be fine with you. Might even find you some help with your excavating, if it catches anyone’s fancy. If you don’t mind some rambunctious little boys, I’m guessin’ Thad and Joshua’d be real interested in hearin’ about your fossils, too.”

The professor nodded. “Should start getting used to it. Our first’s due in the fall – only thing that stopped my wife from coming along was doctor’s orders.”

“Got a wife like that, myself,” Jed Curry smiled. “Adventurous. Well, then, come along back to camp.”

But Harrison only sighed, and gestured in the direction of his horse.

In response, Curry dismounted, took a look at the other man’s saddle and adjusted it. “Try it now.”

Gingerly, reluctantly, Harrison mounted. It was less uncomfortable, anyway, than it had been.

“Don’t they teach you anything, back East?” asked his companion, and then laughed at himself. “Well, other than all that book learnin', of course. Come to think of it, Heyes’d really enjoy meetin’ you. He’s plannin’ on riding out this way in a couple of days.”

Blackfoot Indians, Kid Curry and now Hannibal Heyes, too? Marianne would be so delighted to hear. Things were really looking up for this, his very first ever sabbatical.

**Author's Note:**

> This was another monthly challenge story, and again, takes place some years after the main Alias Investigations narrative. No Heyes this time, but it turns out Kid Curry is a good son-in-law. (If you haven't met Albert Raintree before, he makes his first appearances in the Ella series in "Different Directions" and "Restless Heart.")


End file.
